Italian Train Derails @ Switch Track Killing Passengers

A commuter train derailed in northern Italy, killing at least three people and seriously injuring 10, while trapping others heading into Milan at the start of the work day.

The train derailed at a switch track near the Pioltello Limitostation on the outskirts of Milan, halting train traffic into and out of Italy’s financial capital for hours. At least two main cars from the middle of the train peeled off the rails but were still standing.

Rescue crews gingerly climbed through the crushed sides of the cars trying to get to trapped passengers. The train was heading from Cremona, in eastern Lombardy, into Milan’s Garibaldi station and suffered some sort of damage to a wheel about 1.5 miles from where the train came to a halt.

Italian rescuers and policemen carry a victim on a stretcher on the site of a train crash

Images of the track showed a chunk of one rail missing, but it wasn’t clear what role it played. The train was traveling at the correct speed for that hour, on a high-speed line which was normal for that stretch of track, where there are two conventional rail lines and two high-speed lines.

It was the latest incident involving Italy’saging rail system. In 2016, 23 people were killed when two trains collided on a single track in an olive grove in Puglia, southeastern Italy. In 2009, 32 people were killed when a freight train carrying liquefied petroleum gas derailed and exploded in Viareggio, in central Italy’s Tuscany region.